Companies investing in self driving cars

Amid the avalanche of damning emails and embarrassing text messages that flowed out of the Waymo-Uber trial, what struck me the most was when ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Anthony Levandowski — Kalanick’s onetime business partner who he described in court as his “brother from another mother” — described the race to build self-driving cars as a “zero sum game.” “We need to think through the strategy to take all the shortcuts we can,” Levandowski told Kalanick. “I just see this as a race and we need to win, second place is the first looser [sic].” This callous attitude toward a potentially game-changing, life-saving, and paradigm-shifting technology like autonomous vehicles is extremely troubling. A pirate mentality has infected companies in the autonomous vehicle space. “Move fast and break things” may have worked as an ethos for Uber when it was trying to overcome entrenched interests like the taxi … [Read more...] about The Waymo v. Uber trial has shaken my confidence in self-driving cars

As the year draws to an end, Silicon Valley investors are looking for the next wave of technology after social networking. VentureBeat spoke to a slew of the top players at well-known West Coast institutions — the founding team at Stanford University’s technology accelerator, StartX, partners at some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, and others — to help illuminate what the big trends will be in the coming year. For VCs, it’s not enough to build an addictive mobile app or game: Investors expect to see more, something worth building a venture-funded company around. So in 2013, get ready for mind-blowing, nerdgasmic tech, whether it’s augmented reality, 3D printing, self-driving cars, or space travel. For later-stage startups, 2013 will be the year all hell breaks loose. The IPO pipeline is already brimming with contenders: Venture-funded companies like Twitter, Box, and Square are ready for Wall Street. With heated … [Read more...] about Silicon Valley VCs predict 2013 trends: Space, robots, self-driving cars

It should be obvious by now that autonomy is the future of cars. Obvious or not, large automotive manufacturers have been (predictably) slow to adapt, which is why the most sophisticated autonomous car you can buy right now, the Tesla Model S, comes from a company that didn't even exist 15 years ago. In an attempt to brute-force itself into relevancy, General Motors (the parent company of Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC, among other brands) invested US $500 million in Lyft "to create an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles" back in January. And last Friday, GM followed this up with the acquisition (worth an estimated $1 billion) of a small autonomous car startup based in Silicon Valley called Cruise Automation. Over the last few years, many of the largest automakers in the world have been trying to catch up in autonomous vehicle tech with increasingly frantic amounts of money. Last year, for example, Toyota announced a $50 million investment to fund autonomous … [Read more...] about GM Starts Catching Up in Self-Driving Car Tech with $1 Billion Acquisition of Cruise Automation

Volvo and a consortium of Swedish research institutions will test self-driving cars in street traffic in and around Gothenburg starting in 2017, they announced yesterday. The project begins next year with customer research and hardware development. It will culminate in a fleet of 100 cars that will alternate between driving themselves and allowing their human occupants to drive, depending on where they are. The Swedish initiative has the support of Gothenburg's city authorities. U.S. regulators are also working on how to handle self-driving cars. Cities stand to benefit from reduced traffic and, if self-driving cars join car-sharing schemes, less demand for parking. US regulators have not yet indicated how they will handle self-driving cars, but this Swedish announcement suggests one way of easing self-driving cars into the traffic flow: partial access. Only certain roads will be designated for the Gothenburg test, according to Volvo. That may seem restrictive compared to Google's … [Read more...] about Volvo to Test Self-Driving Cars in Traffic

Many components go into making a vehicle capable of driving itself, but one is proving to be more crucial and contentious than all the rest. That vital ingredient is the lidar sensor, a device that maps objects in 3-D by bouncing laser beams off its real-world surroundings. Self-driving vehicles being tested by companies such as Alphabet, Uber, and Toyota rely heavily on lidar to locate themselves on the detailed maps they need to get around, and to identify things like pedestrians and other vehicles. The best sensors can see details of a few centimeters at distances of more than 100 meters.Most companies in the race to commercialize self-driving cars consider lidar essential (Tesla is a rare exception, relying solely on cameras and radar). Radar sensors can’t see much detail, and cameras don’t perform well in conditions with low light or glare. A Tesla vehicle ran into a tractor-trailer last year, killing the car’s driver, after the Autopilot software … [Read more...] about Self-Driving Cars’ Spinning-Laser Problem

Lyft and Waymo are teaming up on self-driving car development. The new partnership comes as Waymo continues a lawsuit against Lyft rival Uber over autonomous-car tech.The partnership was first reported by The New York Times, and then confirmed by the two companies. Neither company gave specifics on the nature of the collaboration, but it will likely lead to increased testing and attempts at commercialization of self-driving cars, and may not be good news for Uber.Uber runs its own self-driving car program, but since February it’s been fighting a legal battler against Waymo, which claims the ridesharing company benefited from trade secrets stolen by one of its former employees, Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski came to work at Uber after his startup, Otto, was bought by the company last year. Last week, the judge overseeing the case asked federal prosecutors to investigate the matter.While it is far behind Uber in size, Lyft is the company’s main rival (an Apple … [Read more...] about Lyft responds to Uber by teaming up with Waymo on self-driving cars

Two of the biggest names in self-driving cars are joining forces. Google and Continental will announce a partnership to further development of robot car tech, Reuters reports.The exact nature of the agreement will be announced at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, which begins September 12. Continental is also pursuing a collaboration with IBM.The pairing could mean big things for driverless cars. Google has been testing driverless cars (with a “driver” in the car monitoring the driving) on California roads since 2010, and even lobbied to have the machines’ presence on public roads in the Golden State and Nevada formally legalized to further their development.Continental is a major automotive supplier, producing everything from tires to stability control systems. It has also taken a major interest in automated driving, testing cars of its own and partnering with BMW to develop an autopilot system for highway driving.“Automated driving is set to become … [Read more...] about Google and Continental partner to develop self-driving cars

There are more than a few hurdles automakers must overcome before regulators will approve the road operation of autonomous/self-driving vehicles. Beyond the technology and engineering obstacles, establishing laws to govern how, where, and when these auto piloted models may roam our highways and byways is no easy task.A pair of automakers and one technology giant are now attempting to fast-track at least one part of the regulatory process: liability for an autonomous vehicle accident. Volvo, Google, and Mercedes-Benz have now all said that they will accept full liability if their self-driving vehicles cause a collision.Volvo’s CEO, Håkan Samuelsson, will announce the decision when he speaks in Washington D.C. on Thursday. He will also describe the process of getting these types of vehicles to market. “The U.S. risks losing its leading position due to the lack of federal guidelines for the testing and certification of autonomous … [Read more...] about Volvo, Google, and Mercedes-Benz will accept liability in self-driving car accidents

While it has been rumored for some time, Google announced Sunday is has been testing self-driving cars. The company equipped six Toyota Priuses and an Audi TT with technology that enabled a vehicle to drive from Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus to its Santa Monica office. It then moved on to Hollywood Boulevard. In all, Google has sent its auto-cars more than 140,000 miles -- including along the Pacific Coast Highway and across the Golden Gate Bridge.Google notified local police of its testing program and insisted there was a clean-record driver in each vehicle ready to take over if the robot technology decided to go rogue. That may not always have been the case, though. At least one driver claims to have caught a Google car driving unmanned and posted a video on YouTube to prove it.The Google cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic. The cars also utilize detailed maps, which Google has gathered using manned cars. Fifteen engineers … [Read more...] about Google Dabbles in Robotics With Self-Driving Cars

Apple is joining the fiercely competitive race to design self-driving cars, raising the possibility that a company that has already re-shaped culture with its iPhone may try to transform transportation, too.Ending years of speculation, Apple's late entry into a crowded field was made official Friday with the disclosure that the California Department of Motor Vehicles had awarded a permit for the company to start testing its self-driving car technology on public roads in the state.The permit covers three vehicles - all 2015 Lexus RX 450h hybrid SUVs - and six individual drivers. California law requires people to be in a self-driving car who can take control if something goes wrong.APPLE GOES MOBILE ... IN A NEW WAYApple confirmed its arrival in the self-driving car market, but wouldn't discuss its intentions. Its interest in autonomous vehicle technology, however, has long been clear.The Cupertino, California, company pointed to a statement that it issued in December. "Apple is … [Read more...] about Apple Enters Self-Driving Car Race